FEATURE
KAWASAKI RIDER PROJECT
P76
performance, either. The previ-
ous two weeks I'd been home
in Australia, drinking beer and
hanging with mates in what is
exactly the opposite of good
preparation. And I only landed
back in the U.S. on Wednesday
afternoon, so by Friday I was
super jetlagged and wanting to
crawl up into a little ball in the
back of the race truck.
Friday was beset by electrical
gremlins on our ZX-10R, any-
way, so I need not have worried
too much. I got a few laps in on
Friday afternoon to make sure
things were running smoothly
and for Saturday morning qualify-
ing, stuck some sticky soft-com-
pound Dunlop N-Tecs on to see
if all those hours of training had
made any difference.
They did.
Immediately I went a 1:51, then
a '50, then '49, then a 1:48.8.
My goal was to get into the '49s
but to do a '48; I was absolutely
stoked. The best thing was the
time came by focusing on the
points Jason had already ham-
mered in—the main one was car-
rying more roll speed. I'll admit
I got a helping hand initially by
Andrew Lee, the 17-year-old
hotshot on an R6 that whipped
everyone, including all the su-
perbikes, over the weekend. Try-
ing to chase after him, I braked
where Jason wanted me to, car-
ried more roll speed, and picked
up at least a couple of tenths of
a second per corner. I could feel
I was going faster and, I was go-
ing faster more safely. That was
a truly great feeling.
My results for the round were
4-DNF-3-2-3, and had I not
DNF'd in race two it would have
been another podium in third.
There were a couple of extra fast
guys there that weekend that
I simply couldn't beat, but for
me, that was beside the point of
this endeavor. The race results
themselves didn't matter as
such; it was more consistency
in faster lap times. On average,
my lap times dropped about
two seconds from round one to
round two, meaning the objec-
tive was met and the project was
a success.
Now all I have to do is find a
stash of money so I can finish off
the rest of the year!
For a full rundown on the
final Chuckwalla race weekend
including a video, click here. CN
More speed,
accessed safer.
Rennie on his way
1:48.8 lap.
